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7-Eleven Teams with Blip.tv for 'Road Trip Rally'

Web-based series will follow two teams as they race, buy 7-Eleven items.

May 2, 2010, 08:00 pm

NEW YORK -- 7-Eleven Inc. is partnering with blip.tv to launch the '7-Eleven Road Trip Rally,' a Web-based reality series that will follow two teams as they drive across the country, purchasing their food and gasoline exclusively at 7-Eleven convenience stores.

The race, which begins May 10, will culminate at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway May 28. New episodes of the teams' adventures and challenges will air daily on 711RoadTrip.com. 7-Eleven and partners, including Dr Pepper, Planter's, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer and Nestlé Pure Life, will promote the show through their own Web sites.

"The show provides a great opportunity to use the enthusiasm around auto racing and reality TV to reach fans and appeal to new customers on the Web," said Rita Bargerhuff, 7-Eleven's chief marketing officer. "We knew the best way to get our point across would be through video. We've had great success with social media, so a Web series made perfect sense. Blip.tv truly understands the distributed Web and they've been invaluable throughout the development of this program."

Customers and racing fans can follow each team's progress, daily challenge competitions and the comedic drama of a cross-country road trip not on 711RoadTrip.com, Facebook and Twitter. Viewers will be able to keep track of each team as all tweets will be geo-tagged and shared on an interactive map at 711RoadTrip.com.

Blip.tv will distribute the show to partner sites and platforms including iTunes, Yahoo! and AOL Video, TiVo, Sony Bravia, Verizon FiOS and the Roku Digital Video Player. The show's final challenge will take place at the racetrack, where drivers Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick from Andretti Autosport will announce the winners.

"7-Eleven is a brand that understands where its customers live and how to connect with them in an impactful way," said Evan Gotlib, blip.tv's vice president of advertising sales. "We have always been and will continue to remain focused on supporting and promoting quality, original Web shows and '7-Eleven Road Trip Rally' is an exciting addition to the blip.tv lineup."

San Francisco's Happy Little Guillotine Films is working with blip.tv and 7-Eleven to produce, film and edit all of the episodes airing on '7-Eleven Road Trip Rally.'

"It's incredibly energizing to work with companies like 7-Eleven and blip.tv on this project," said Yuri Baranovsky, one of the firm's founders. "We're independent show creators at HLG, first and foremost, and both companies allowed us to impart our expertise and our vision while working to create a great series. To me, this is the future of media; it's branded content with purpose and high-entertainment value that will really draw in viewers."